


Into The Unknown

by amooniesong



Series: A Father, His Three Children, and the Green Boy [7]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 1.16 The Nether Update (Minecraft), Adopted Children, Adventure, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Clay | Dream & Technoblade Friendship (Video Blogging RPF), Family, Friendship, Gen, Kid Fic, One Shot, Realistic Minecraft, The Nether (Minecraft), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28947657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amooniesong/pseuds/amooniesong
Summary: Dream and Technoblade were adventurers at heart. It had taken little convincing on Technoblade’s part to get Dream to join him today - even if it meant leaving a sleeping Tubbo with little more than a note in their cabin in the forest to meet at the crack of dawn - and Dream was there as expected.----------Dream and Technoblade visit the Nether for the first time
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson
Series: A Father, His Three Children, and the Green Boy [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019533
Comments: 16
Kudos: 205





	Into The Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> in this fic in the au, dadza is dadza, wilbur is seventeen, techno & dream are fourteen, & tommy & tubbo are nine

Dream and Technoblade were adventurers at heart. It had taken little convincing on Technoblade’s part to get Dream to join him today - even if it meant leaving a sleeping Tubbo with little more than a note in their cabin in the forest to meet at the crack of dawn - and Dream was there as expected. 

“Catch.” Dream said, tossing a diamond helmet toward Technoblade who caught the armour and smiled down at it fondly. Dream was a fine craftsman - even  _ if  _ he was two months younger - and that was helpful. Phil knew that Technoblade wanted to explore but he was still forbidden from going deep enough into a cave to find diamonds. If his father saw him with the helmet, far too many questions would be asked of him. 

“Thanks, Dream.” Technoblade replied as he strapped the helmet to his head. “What did you use yours for?”

“Saving until I have enough for a sword.” He smirked behind his mask. “Next time you need something making, I’m charging double.”

“Try it.” Technoblade told him flatly. “If you think you can win in a fight, you’re free to try.”

“You’d leave my baby brother without a protector?” Dream asked, a hand coming to his chest to look as dramatic as possible - a skill the boy seemed to have mastered. Technoblade blamed Wilbur.

“Dad would take him in without thinking twice, Tommy’s practically  _ begging  _ for it. And I think not letting Tubbo be exposed to Tommy all day is payment enough.”

Dream hummed as if in thought, and the two boys looked out to the horizon. The sun’s rays were just beginning to tickle the field that stretched out for miles before them, but that wasn’t the way they were going today. No, they wanted an  _ adventure,  _ it was why they’d come equipped with their swords, shields, and finest armour, and why they were leaving so early. They had - several days ago - stumbled across something that was at least three hours worth of hiking away. In among the plains was a patch of red stone and a rectangle of obsidian. It was summer, but the heat radiating from the strange thing they’d found was so much  _ more  _ than just an intensely hot day, it was more than a heatwave, and the crackling sound confirmed that. Beneath the red rocks was lava. 

In a chest beside the obsidian they’d found gold nuggets (which Technoblade had taken and placed in his bedroom - he had a small collection of gold things to occupy himself with when he needed to calm down) and a flint and steel. 

Of course, being teenage boys, they didn’t know what those things did. They were adventurers, but they didn’t know everything about the world just yet.

So they’d come home and done their research, they’d asked questions of Phil and from the nearby village, and they’d come to a conclusion. The obsidian frame was an ancient portal to another world, and it would open if a spark started a fire. Most of this information had come from the villagers - Phil had explained what the portal was and where it went in vague terms, but he knew better than to provide two fourteen year olds with the knowledge of how to use it - and they were intent on crossing that boundary today.

Technoblade had left a note for Phil saying he’d gone off adventuring with Dream, but neglected to mention exactly what was happening. Nothing sounded  _ less cool  _ than getting to the portal and lighting it only to have his father running after him and cramping his style.

“What do you think is on the other side?” Dream asked. They were thirty minutes into their hike now and had slowed down to cross a river, carefully stepping across slippery stones to avoid falling in and getting their feet wet.

“I dunno.” Technoblade replied, jumping to the opposite bank and looking back to see Dream following him. He stumbled - he always did, Technoblade blamed the mask - but recovered quickly. As he thought, he ran his fingers through his braids and pushed his floppy ears back. “Maybe it’s where all the monsters live.”

“That would be so cool!” Dream said excitedly, his voice cracking a little (something that Technoblade would tease him about for at least twenty minutes, because Piglin puberty had been painful and Dream had it so much easier). “We could kill them all and protect the realm and be heroes!”

“I think you mean,  _ I  _ could be a hero. You’ll be my plucky little sidekick.” When Dream pulled a face behind his mask as he clambered up to Technoblade’s side, the Piglin just ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry, I won’t forget you when I’m famous.”

“I’ll be more famous than you.” Dream said. “So,  _ there.”  _

Technoblade rolled his eyes - a cliche move that was usually reserved for his father - but the two continued on once more. After teasing Dream about his voice cracking for fifteen minutes, Dream had drawn his wooden sword - leaving the iron one at his hip - and Technoblade did the same. The next forty minutes was filled with laughter and shouting as the two ran across the fields, chasing each other and sparring when they were close enough to fight. Through the sheer number of rolls to dodge hits and tackles to the ground, the two were covered in bruises before they could even see the portal. They decided that whatever was on the other side, they were more a threat to themselves than it could possibly be.

Another hour passed, during which Technoblade became  _ bored  _ because Dream wouldn’t stop talking about  _ George.  _ It wasn’t that Technoblade didn’t like George, it was just that when Dream talked about George it sounded a lot like when Wilbur talked about girls, and Wilbur talked about girls  _ a lot  _ (he was seventeen, and the only two things he seemed to think about now were  _ girls  _ and  _ geography).  _ He didn’t want to hear about even more of this when it was one of the many reasons he’d left the house for a grand adventure.

Dream eventually shut up when they saw the portal on the horizon, and the two broke out into a sprint to see who could get there first. Their boisterous nature sent horses galloping away from them and rabbits hopping into their burrows underground, but despite all the noise they made their race ended in a tie. 

“I won!” They both shouted in tandem, and as they investigated the portal frame to see if there was anything more to it (other than the obnoxious waves of heat that came from the lava so close to the surface) they argued back and forth about the fact.

“No,  _ I won.”  _ Technoblade said emphatically. “And I’m older, so whatever I say goes.”

“Yeah, well I’m younger, and if you don’t let me win I’ll tell Phil you went deep enough to mine diamonds.”

“You came too!” Technoblade rebutted, and Dream just shrugged.

“Phil’s not my dad.”

“He’s  _ technically  _ not mine either.” Technoblade replied. “Where do you think I got those ears from?” 

“They aren’t  _ that  _ different to Wilbur’s…”

“Phil isn’t technically  _ any  _ of our dads.” Technoblade pointed out, and Dream just shrugged and pulled the flint and steel from his pocket.

“You ready?” He asked, the smirk behind his mask evident in his voice. “Or are you chicken?”

“I’m a Piglin, Dream, you know that.” 

“Stop being so unfunny.” Dream replied, his tongue sticking out through the hole in his mask, but Technoblade stepped back from the portal and waved an arm in front of him gesturing that Dream was free to light it whenever he wanted to. Dream took a few sticks from his pockets and some grass from the plains so there would be something to burn and start the fire needed to ignite the portal, before hovering over it and starting to strike the flint against the metal.

One click, nothing.

Two clicks, a tiny spark.

Three clicks,  _ fire. _

The fire didn’t last for long. Not because it was extinguished by a gentle breeze, but because it morphed into something else entirely. It was as if the air before them bent and wiggled, swirling in circles as Dream ran to stand at Technoblade’s side. The two watched on with unblinking eyes, utterly engrossed, until the wiggling air began to change in colour. The first colour to fill the portal frame was the same orange that the flame had been, but before their very eyes it morphed quickly into a rich red and then blue started to come into the mix until the obsidian frame was filled with a bright, beautiful purple. Not only was it swirling before their very eyes, but it shimmered and entranced them. If that hadn’t been enough to encourage them both to step forward, then the quiet whispers calling out to them in a language they didn’t understand  _ was.  _

“D’you wanna go first?” Technoblade asked quietly, not even bothering to look at Dream as he shook his head quickly.

“Not a chance.” He replied, sounding almost afraid.

Technoblade couldn’t even find it within himself to tease him for it, not this time. He had to admit that there was a pit in his own stomach too, though he’d only admit it to himself and  _ certainly  _ wouldn’t be voicing it aloud. 

“I guess I will then.” He said, turning his head this time. “Will you come after me?” 

“What if it’s not safe?” Dream asked. “What if every monster really  _ does  _ live there?” 

“Then I’m gonna need my sidekick to make sure I’m not dead.” Technoblade deadpanned, but Dream’s worries were enough for him to reach for the iron sword at his side. If he went in holding it in one hand and his shield in the other, then surely the first step onto the other side would be safe.

At least, he’d buy himself enough time for Dream to get through and rescue him, right?

Technoblade knew if he stalled any longer that he simply wouldn’t go, so he took in a deep breath and turned his attention once more to the portal. He didn’t know what he should expect from the transition - how long it would take or how it would make him feel - but he marched in with all the confidence he could muster up.

When he stepped into the purple, he didn’t immediately disappear from the world they lived in. He had a moment where he could look to his left and see Dream - although his vision was incredibly warped and becoming more so with each second that passed - the younger giving him a wave as he disappeared from the Overworld entirely.

For a moment, Technoblade saw nothing, and then he heard a deafening whirring as he was spat out the other side of whatever he’d just travelled through. The actual experience was fine, but the landing had him stumbling forward and feeling nauseous.

The first few moments in the new world were overwhelming. The heat hit him first. If he thought the proximity to lava had been hot when he’d been in the Overworld then he had another thing coming for him now. It wasn’t just obnoxious, but all encompassing. It seeped into his pores, crept through his skin and into his bones, but while he felt the change in heat he felt… _ Comfortable.  _ It almost felt like he suited the temperature even if it wasn’t what he was used to. As the nausea wore off and Technoblade started to become more aware of his surroundings, he began to critically analyse everything he could see.

Firstly, there was a perfect replica of the portal he’d entered right behind him. It was lit, too, which was helpful. It meant he wasn’t stuck there, or he didn’t have to find a way out. The ground beneath his feet was much the same as the red rocks the portal in the Overworld had been surrounded by, though here it wasn’t just a small patch. It was the ground, it was the walls, and it was the ceiling towering high above. It felt like he was inside a wide cave, and he wondered if that was the case. Maybe the portal just took him deep,  _ deep  _ into the heart of the world he lived in, beneath even the bedrock he’d seen on a few rare occasions. A few hundred metres below he could see lava - and a  _ lot  _ of it - which explained the oppressive heat. As he walked closer to the edge of the precipice he was standing on he heard the portal starting to hiss and whir again until it ejected Dream.

Unlike Technoblade, Dream didn’t immediately recover from the journey. In a rarely seen act his mask was pushed from his head and dropped on the ground as he fell to his knees, coughing and hacking as the combination of nausea and hot air was enough for him to heave. Technoblade refused to judge him for reacting differently to the journey, and instead kneeled beside him and rubbed a hand against his back the same way his father did when he was sick. Out of courtesy for his friend, he didn’t look at his face, instead staring out across the lava lake below.

He couldn’t see it ending, instead it just disappeared into a dense, red fog. 

Dream threw up once, and after he tugged on Technoblade’s arm indicating that his mask was back on he turned to his friend with a concerned look on his face.

“Do you want to go back?” He asked, but Dream shook his head.

“We’re exploring, right?” Technoblade nodded. “I want to explore. I’ll be fine, we just won’t fight anything.”

Technoblade could agree to that for now. He enjoyed fighting, but it might be nice to learn a little bit more about what inhabited this strange new world  _ before  _ they killed it. So, after helping Dream to his feet, the two slowly began to walk away from their portal. Every so often Technoblade placed down a sign, making sure that they didn’t get lost as they wandered deeper into the red wasteland they found themselves in. 

Without a sun in the sky to tell them how long they’d been walking, they simply went until their surroundings began to change. By that point their legs ached, but seeing the red ground beneath their feet take on an almost grass like texture and  _ trees  _ start to appear on the horizon had kept them going a little bit longer. Not only that, but there were  _ creatures  _ here. From a distance it was hard to make out exactly what they were, but the closer they got the easier it was to see them.

The first thing they saw was, to put it simply, a big pig with tusks. While they’d planned not to kill everything they saw, those things hadn’t gotten the memo, and Dream and Technoblade were immediately battling it to the death.

If they hadn’t come together it might have been a lot closer than it was, but neither boy had been hurt and the only real damage done came in the form of Technoblade’s ripped cloak. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the only thing in this strange world, just the fastest and most aggressive. There were other things - some that resembled Technoblade slightly and held golden swords but wandered around without paying the pair too much attention - and then there was  _ another  _ group of other things. It was the second group of  _ other things  _ that Technoblade and Dream were most fascinated by.

They eyed Dream with caution, constantly looking at the golden buckle on his belt with greedy, beady eyes, and they looked at Technoblade with curiosity.

Technoblade looked right back at them with curiosity.

“They look like you.” Dream said, and if Technoblade wasn’t so focused on the creatures before him then he might have come up with some kind of sassy, witty reply.

But he didn’t. He couldn’t stop looking at them. He tilted his head to one side, and they did the same. Looking behind him, he saw another. They were like him,  _ just like him…  _ They were  _ Piglins…  _ Two of the children came to play with the fluffy ends of his robe. When he looked at them, they looked back. They squealed at him, and when he made no noise or movement in return they started playing with the fabric again. Technoblade did nothing but return his attention to the grown ups. They stood a little taller than him and they grunted in a language that he didn’t understand.

Technoblade felt his heart in his throat. The nausea that had left him when he’d first arrived returned, and tenfold, and he felt unable to look away from the creatures before him.

After a few moments of quiet where he and the Piglins did nothing but stare at each other, one snorted louder than the others and gained the attention of all the other Piglins in the area that weren’t already gathering around him. 

“Techno…” Dream said slowly, Technoblade looking over his shoulder to his friend. Even with his mask on, he looked nervous, and Technoblade couldn’t blame him. “Can you understand them?”

“No.” He admitted, and when he spoke the creatures around him all began to snort and grunt louder. It was as if they recognised him as one of them, and as if they were offended that he wasn’t speaking their language. He wondered what they were saying - if they were berating him, or asking him to speak like them, or wondering where he’d come from or what sort of clothes he wore - but there was nothing he could do to understand them.

“Techno, I don’t think we’re safe here.” Dream said. A quick glance around confirmed that each of the adults had some kind of weapon in their hands - some had crossbows, some golden swords, others golden axes. They were  _ far  _ outnumbered. If for whatever reason they decided they weren’t going to be peaceful any longer, they would be no match for the Piglins. 

“We should go.” Technoblade replied, ignoring the second chorus of grunts at his voice. “Back to the portal.” 

Technoblade took a step towards Dream, but a Piglin quickly jumped in front of him and stopped him from walking any further. 

“Techno!” 

“Go, Dream, I’ll meet you back in the Overworld.” Technoblade said sternly, and he could see Dream’s eyes flickering behind his mask. He was considering the instruction, but eventually ended up following it. Technoblade was relieved, letting his shoulders fall as his friend disappeared quickly from sight. He’d always been the faster of the two of them - and had  _ definitely  _ won the race to the portal earlier - but he found that meant nothing anymore. Technoblade was surrounded by people,  _ his people,  _ and he couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

Among the many,  _ many  _ thoughts going through his head in that moment, one stood out more than the others.

Were these people his family? 

Phil, of course, was his father. Phil was the man that had raised him. But it didn’t take an idiot to realise that a Human couldn’t produce a Piglin - certainly not a lone male Human - and Phil had made it no secret that he had adopted all three of his sons. It meant that somewhere out there, Technoblade had a biological mother and father, and standing in a group of creatures that all looked just like him  _ of course  _ he had to wonder if they were there.

As he’d stood there, more and more Piglins had surrounded him, and he found himself trapped. They weren’t hostile and he didn’t want to  _ make  _ them hostile, so for now he found himself standing there. They snorted and grunted to try and encourage him to talk further, but the few words he did say just proved that they couldn’t understand him and he couldn’t understand them.

Again, it was impossible to tell how much time he spent like that, but eventually a new figure appeared through the trees. This Piglin was bigger than the others and wore darker clothes, he had larger tusks and longer hair. Clearly, this Piglin was in charge. 

Compared to most Humans, Technoblade was large. He stood taller than them, his species made him stronger than them, and he often found that he intimidated people that hadn’t come to know him yet, but this Piglin frightened even  _ him.  _ The other Piglins - the ones that had been watching him curiously since he’d arrived - parted to let him walk up to Technoblade and look down upon the teenager curiously. He felt  _ small.  _

A second passed before the largest Piglin held something out in front of him. A book. Technoblade hesitated for a moment, afraid of what would happen if he did the wrong thing, but he eventually found the courage within him to reach out and grab hold of the item. It felt like a normal book, with a leather cover and neatly bound pages, but upon opening it he found that it was written in a language that he didn’t understand. 

It must have been the language that they spoke.

Looking back up, the Piglin gestured toward him with a grunt. 

“For me?” He asked, pointing to himself with a finger, and the Piglin nodded. At least they seemed to understand the same kinds of gestures. 

“I’ll learn.” He said, the Piglin pointing to its head - what Technoblade assumed meant its brain - and he nodded in reply. 

“Thank you.” Technoblade smiled, before trying to snort. While the noises the creatures around him made were clearly complex, polished, and intricate, he mustered up little more than an exhale of breath. The adults - the ones he  _ assumed  _ were parents - laughed. Did he remind them of their children? Was that what it sounded like when they were first learning to speak? Would he one day be able to speak with them and understand what they said? 

With those questions - and so many more - bubbling in his mind, the group that had gathered around him began to disperse. They were done with him for now, and the largest Piglin turned his back on him and walked away - even the children that had been playing with his cape had now lost interest in him. As they went back to their own business he held the book close to his chest, taking in a few breaths to try and calm himself before turning on his feet and running back the way that he’d come. He left the signs behind, wanting a trail that would bring him back to the forest quickly when he returned to this world. 

When he arrived back at the portal he found Dream waiting for him, and the way that his shoulders sagged and his arms rose to offer up a hug showed that he must have been nervous as all hell.

“Techno, what  _ was  _ that?” He asked, and Technoblade felt Dream’s arms wrapping around him tightly. With one hand he returned the gesture, still clinging to the book with his other as he buried his head comfortingly on Dream’s shoulder. The hug was enough for every question he wanted an answer to to seep away from his mind, and he was grateful for the moment of quiet that an embrace with his friend offered.

“I don’t know.” He admitted, closing his eyes. “Don’t tell my dad.”

“I won’t.” Dream replied. “He’d probably ground you if he found out you came here.”

“Not like grounding me has ever stopped me anyway.” Technoblade forced out a laugh, trying to sound like his normal self, before a shriek echoing in the cavern around them pulled them away from each other.

It had come from over the lava lake, and in the sky they could see the creature it came from fly. For want of a better word, it was a ghost. It was huge, white, and had an almost permanently shocked look on its face. The two young boys looked at it for less than a moment before it seemed to see them, and another painful shriek sounded. 

“Run!” Dream yelled, as something shot out of its mouth toward them. Neither boy wasted a moment before running back into the portal, and the two disappeared from the world moments before the fireball hit and shattered their way home. If they’d hesitated for even a moment, they would have been stuck.

When they emerged from the portal back in the Overworld, standing in the plains and immediately feeling cold now that they weren’t surrounded by lava and heat, the two stared at each other. Whatever that thing was, it was dangerous, and with it on the other side of the portal when they left there was no way to know if it would still be there if they crossed into that world again.

“We shouldn’t go back.” Dream said, and Technoblade found himself agreeing. If he went back, he wanted to go back alone. Not because he  _ didn’t  _ want to adventure with Dream, but because he didn’t want Dream snooping in while he tried to learn more about those people.

_ His people.  _

He wanted this adventure to be  _ his.  _

“We won’t go back.” Technoblade said. 

As they got their bearings they realised that the sun was setting, and by the fact that they weren’t  _ that tired  _ and were only just starting to get a bit hungry they could tell they’d been gone for less than a day. At least that meant they weren’t going to return home to a terrified Phil who would scream that they’d been missing for weeks and demand an explanation into their disappearance. It wasn’t the first time they’d gone off early to explore, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

It didn’t mean that Phil was  _ pleased  _ when the two boys arrived home after dark, but they’d had enough time on their walk home to come up with a convincing lie (and to hide Technoblade’s diamond helmet by the front door, which Dream would take home with him when he left). They claimed to have visited the village and been given a treasure map by Niki - an easy lie to debunk, but something that sounded truthful enough that Phil wouldn’t bother asking about - and they’d followed it further than they thought. Of course, they hadn’t found any treasure, but they’d had fun and came home safely: and at the end of the day that was what mattered most to Phil. 

Before dinner, Technoblade took the book he’d been given to his bedroom and hid it beneath his pillow to keep it from the prying eyes of nosy brothers. They enjoyed filling bowls of beef stew and hunks of bread before Tubbo emerged from upstairs (where he’d spent most of the day playing with Tommy after discovering Dream had gone when he’d woken up). After saying their goodbyes, Dream and Tubbo returned to the little cabin in the woods and Technoblade, exhausted, helped his father wash the dishes. 

Once Technoblade had said goodnight he ran to his bedroom, grabbing the book from his bed and sitting himself in front of his door to keep anyone from coming in and seeing him reading it. It didn’t make much sense - in fact, it made no sense whatsoever - but that wasn’t going to stop him from reading it. Perhaps tomorrow, when he was a little less tired, he’d start trying to find a way to translate the words so he could understand what was written in it, but until then he’d just let the nonsense wash over him. Even if he couldn’t comprehend what it was, reading it felt comforting. It felt like he was starting to discover a part of himself that he never really  _ knew.  _

When he eventually grew too tired to keep his eyes open he slid the book back beneath his pillow and clambered into bed, his mind full of questions that he was determined to one day find an answer to.

And if he dreamed of a family - a real, biological family - then that would explain the horrible guilty feeling that seemed to follow him around whenever he looked at Phil the next day. As much as he didn’t want to think of it, he couldn’t stop thinking of it. 

Maybe when he knew the truth, things would be easier. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed! if you did, please leave a kudos & consider leaving a comment - it really does make my day! & if you'd like more of me you can join my [discord server](https://discord.gg/HEj9Z8h27w) or follow my [twitter](https://twitter.com/moonieiswriting)
> 
> thank you all for reading, and if you have anything in particular you'd like to see in this au feel free to suggest it down below!


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